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Not many people know that Bollywood's evergreen actor Dev Anand had spent some six years of his adolescence with his uncles in Madhoganj area of this town in the 1930s.

The aged natives of this town in UP recall stories associated with the film star and his fondness for Pratapgarh, terming Dev Ananad's death as a personal loss.

Om Prakash Pandey of Madhoganj recalls that Dev Anand or Chiru, as he was then known, had come here alongwith his family to the house of his uncles Om Prakash Anand and Vishwamitr Anand, a former chairman of Belha nagarpalika in this locality on the bank of Sai river.

Pandey said that Chiru was around 11 years old when he had come to this town to his uncles' place and stayed here for some six years.

It was only later that his name was changed to Devdutt Kishorimal and then Dharamdev Anand, he said.

Another eminent citizen and former chairman of Belha nagarpalika, Munshi Raza recalls the All India Youth Congress meeting in Delhi in 1975-1976 in which Dev Anand was the chief guest.